Antarctica's Demise
A plan to create the world's largest marine sanctuary has failed when an agreement was unable to be reached
Antarctica is without question an extraordinary place. It is the highest, driest, windiest and coldest continent on Earth, a place of remarkable beauty and a frontier of ecological importance. Its fauna is unique and perfectly adapted to what, for most other life, are desperately inhospitable conditions. Lapping at its shores, the Southern Ocean brings ferocious winds, huge waves and a current that has a powerful influence on global climate. But concern has been prompted for this incredible natural wonder due to commercial fishing by distant nations and the escalating menace of climate change.
According to Antarctic explorer and scientist Tim Jarvis AM, “The importance of the Antarctic in underpinning the ocean’s food chain is impossible to overstate and we should be doing all that we can to sustain it. If you don’t protect those resources, you risk disrupting the whole global food web in the ocean.”
MARINE PROTECTED AREAS
Made up of 25 nations and the European Union, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) was created in 1982 and is tasked with regulating sustainable exploitation of resources in and around Antarctica.
In 2002, CCAMLR agreed to establish a network of ‘Marine Protection Areas’ (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean and has since declared two. The first, in 2009, covers 94,000 square kilometres south of the South Orkney Islands. 2016 saw the second, covering a further 1.55 million square kilometres in the Ross Sea. These marine parks are part of a larger international effort to protect 10 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2020.
MPAs are essential for healthy ocean ecosystems as they protect vulnerable habitats and endangered species from harmful human activities and boost the resilience of species to climate change. They also act as natural laboratories for learning about ecological processes and long-term changes. Antarctic marine reserves offer a rare opportunity to conserve and study unique species in a wilderness environment relatively untouched by human activity.
EAST ANTARCTICA
On the table at the 38th annual meeting of the CCAMLR were three separate proposals for MPAs in East Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea. These proposals, jointly covering more than 3.2 million square kilometres, are the result of years of research and consultations with scientists and Antarctic stakeholders, including the fishing industry. Marine experts insist they are essential for protecting wildlife, mitigating climate change impacts and building a globally-significant ecosystem resilience.
The proposed East Antarctica Marine Protected Area (EAMPA) comprises three large blocks of open ocean and seabed from the Antarctic coastline to beyond the continental shelf. Each area harbours unique ecosystems rich in marine life, cold water corals and important foraging areas for penguins, flying seabirds, seals and whales. The proposal also includes scientific reference zones for measuring the natural variability and long-term climate changes in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
East Antarctica is the largest part of the continent and chiefly looked after by Australia. With more than 100 years of proud history in exploration and scientific research of the region, Australia has a leading role in an international campaign to conserve this vast polar wilderness. The EAMPA would play a key role in supporting sustainable fisheries and in furthering Australia’s cutting-edge climate change research.
This proposal was co-sponsored by Australia, France and the EU. Speaking in Canberra on the eve of the 38th meeting, Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said, “My decision to pursue this with CCAMLR Antarctic waters underlines our commitment to protecting the Antarctic and Southern Ocean.”
SCIENCE VERSUS SELF-INTEREST
Developed in 2010, the EAMPA proposal has been endorsed by CCAMLR's Scientific Committee three times. It was formally tabled in 2012 and has been under consideration ever since. Initially, seven areas covering almost 2 million square kilometres of ocean were proposed, but in an attempt to win the support of a minority of objectors, it has been scaled back to three zones covering less than half that area.
Under CCAMLR rules, MPA proposals require a unanimous “yes” vote by all 25 members, but economic imperatives and geopolitical dynamics have consistently stymied consensus. The latest meeting marks the eighth straight time the EAMPA proposal has failed despite being based on the best available science and attempts by supportive delegations.
CHINA AND RUSSIA PLAY A SPOILING GAME
While the vast majority of member governments support the EAMPA proposal, China and Russia do not. They have been its most vocal opponents, citing a variety of concerns including insufficiency of scientific data, the language of specific regulations and geopolitical manoeuvring by other states. In recent years China has even gone so far as to challenge the fundamental intent of the CCAMLR Convention as one inherently conferring on members a right to fish rather than a responsibility to conserve.
This spoiling game has drawn vigorous criticism from conservation groups. After last year’s meeting, Greenpeace's Frida Bengtsson accused the Russian and Chinese delegations of using delaying tactics to hold up the negotiations, saying, “Twenty-two delegations came here to negotiate in good faith but, instead, serious scientific proposals for urgent marine protection were derailed by interventions which barely engaged with the science and made a mockery of real deliberation."
Behind the rhetoric, the debate boils down to countries that want to establish “no-take” MPAs (where fishing, mining, drilling and other extractive industries are banned), and countries like China and Russia which are asserting their right to exploit krill and resources such as minerals and oil.
Both nations have current or historical fishing interests in the region. Trawlers from the Soviet Union once plied East Antarctic waters and Russia has expressed interest in returning. China started fishing for krill in 2009 and has rapidly expanded its activities. Alongside Norway and South Korea, they are among the biggest Antarctic krill fishing nations, with Norway leading in terms of catch and processing capacity, and China in the number of vessels. The krill fishing industry is predicted to grow 12 per cent a year over the next three years.
Meanwhile, studies show that, since the 1970s, a combination of climate change and industrial-scale fishing has led to an 80 per cent reduction in Antarctic krill populations. A consequent decline in penguin populations of almost a third is predicted by the end of the century.
DISAPPOINTMENT AND DISILLUSIONMENT
The recent meeting in Hobart wasn’t a complete waste of time, with progress made on some matters including a new prohibition on the discharge of plastics and dumping of fuel oil from fishing vessels, a new research program for the management of krill fisheries and precautionary catch limits for all toothfish fisheries.
But these are small in comparison with the possibility of taking a giant step forward in polar conservation by creating a massive marine reserve in East Antarctica. The CCAMLR’s failure to do so, again, has left conservationists frustrated and angry, and raised doubts about the organisation’s credibility.
Andrea Kavanagh, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts, was “disheartened” by the failure of the proposal for the eighth consecutive year. “Unfortunately, government leaders failed to heed the UN’s immediate call to action on climate change and made no contribution toward protecting the Southern Ocean’s critical ecosystem, nor the goal of safeguarding 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030," she said.
Frida Bengtsson went further. “Despite the efforts of many members, CCAMLR appears to be going backwards. It is not acceptable that fisheries in the Southern Ocean move forward every year while progress is stalled on establishing marine protected areas. Millions of people want to see the Southern Ocean protected and CCAMLR’s inability to do this calls its credibility into question.”
After last year’s meeting, Claire Christian, executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, which represents more than 15 environment groups, said “We are now deeply worried about the future of the Commission and its credibility. Conservation is the principal objective of CCAMLR, yet it has consistently failed to fulfil its commitment to the protection of Antarctic marine living resources.” Likewise, the World Wildlife Fund lambasted CCAMLR member states for demonstrating a "lack of commitment towards conservation" of the Antarctic.
Clearly, something needs to change for the CCAMLR to find a way across the deadlock and carry out its mandate. Professor Tim Stephens, Antarctic Treaty expert at the University of Sydney believes there needs to be a better strategy. “Just going in with the science is not enough. There needs to be a serious injection of diplomacy and politics and tactics.”
Speaking after the meeting, Environment Minister Sussan Ley reiterated the government’s commitment to the proposal, saying, “It is something that we see as worthwhile, but we also respect the views of the nations at the conference. There was widespread support and these things can take time. We will continue to look at future strategies.”
In a statement to media at the end of the meeting the CCAMLR said, “Members will continue to work intersessionally on proposals for these MPAs before they are again considered at next year’s meeting.”
THE WRAP
While Antarctica may seem vast, mighty and remote, it’s also fragile. Experts agree that a failure to extend MPAs in the Antarctic could have severe consequences for its ecosystems. CCAMLR must honour its responsibility to protect this blue heart of our planet and prove to the world that it has the political will to do so. The future of Antarctica hangs in the balance and time is running out.
[For more information visit: www.ccamlr.org and www.antarctica.gov.au]